Wearable devices, such as heart rate or other fitness monitors, may be operable in connected and disconnected states. The connected state may be for operation when the wearable device is worn by a user. Similarly, the disconnected state may be for operation when the wearable device is not worn by a user. The disconnected state may permit download or display of data, user input and the like, but may not provide active monitoring functions that are provided while being worn, as one example.
In the connected state, a wearable device such as heart rate monitor based on photoplethysmographic sensors or electrocardiographic sensors may be operable to detect and monitor the user's heart rate and/or similar operations that require the user to be wearing the wearable device. In the disconnected state, such a wearable device may be configured by the user and/or perform other operations that do not require the user to be wearing the wearable device.
In order for such a wearable device to operate properly in either the connected or disconnected state, the wearable device may need to be aware which state it should be operating in. This may require the wearable device to be aware or sense whether or not the user is currently wearing the wearable device. In some cases, a user may enter input (such as via a touch screen, one or more buttons, and/or one or more other input/output mechanisms) to indicate to the wearable device whether the user is currently wearing the wearable device or not. However, requiring the user to enter input to change the state of the wearable device may be inconvenient and/or burdensome.